National HealthCare Corporation
100 East Vine Street
Murfreesboro, TN 37130
August 15, 2013
VIA EDGAR
Mr. Gregory Dundas
Attorney Advisor
United States Securities and Exchange Commission
Division of Corporation Finance
450 Fifth Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20549
RE:
National HealthCare Corporation
Form 10-K for the Fiscal Year ended December 31, 2012
Filed February 5, 2013
Form 10-Q for the Fiscal Quarter Ended March 31, 2013
Filed May 8, 2013
File No. 001-13489
Dear. Mr. Dundas,
This is a written request for an extension of the time allowed for National HealthCare Corporation (the “Company”) to respond to your letter dated July 18, 2013 regarding the Company’s filing referenced above. Unfortunately, the Company was not aware of the letter until August 12, 2013. In addition, both Mr. John K. Lines, the Company’s Senior Vice President and General Counsel and Secretary, and I have been out of the office over the last week. Therefore, we respectfully request that you allow the Company to file its response to your letter on or before August 26, 2013. We spoke to Joseph M. Kempf today, and he indicated that there was not a problem with this request provided we filed a written request by EDGAR.
The Company is committed to fully complying with the SEC disclosure requirements. We would like a little more time to ensure that we can adequately respond to each item in your comment letter. If you have any problems or concerns with receiving our response on or before August 26, 2013, please call me at (615) 890-2020 to discuss.
Sincerely,
NATIONAL HEALTHCARE CORPORATION
/s/ Donald K. Daniel
Donald K. Daniel
Senior Vice President and
Principal Accounting Officer
DKD/krh
cc Joseph M. Kempf
